I really hope Grosjean not only shrugs this year off, but even uses it to his advantage. He and Maldonado are the bad boys now, and that has its benefits. In my opinion he should come back next year with a twinkle in his eyes and have fun with his new status, not be apologetic or sorry about it. Sooner or later there will be a new whipping boy and people realize there are others with worse statistics so this will not last forever. Last race showed he was not afraid to still dice hard so it looks like he's not scarred by all the rap.

Grosjean will get a one year extension, mainly because that's how raikkonen is playing his cards. Lotus-Renault wouldn't want to send their #1 driver the wrong message by agreeing to provide him single year contracts whilst giving the all-wrecking rookie a multi-year deal.

Not gonna happen, Sorry He is fast indeed, but needs to seriously improve his racecraft.

Grosjean will get a one year extension, mainly because that's how raikkonen is playing his cards. Lotus-Renault wouldn't want to send their #1 driver the wrong message by agreeing to provide him single year contracts whilst giving the all-wrecking rookie a multi-year deal.

Not gonna happen, Sorry He is fast indeed, but needs to seriously improve his racecraft.

Räikkönen actually admitted that he wanted a 1 year deal and will not commit to long contracts anymore. So it was more on Kimi's side.

...but F1 teams ususally don't have a whole lot of patience, so we have to wait and see if Lotus does.

Indeed. That same team dumped Heidfeld mid-season when he was performing as well as his teammate (if not better), then got rid of his replacement (Senna) at the end of the season.

I think they will probably keep Grosjean, but it's hard to know for sure with their recent history. If they do replace him I don't know who they would replace him with that would definitely be an improvement. Most of the best drivers already have contracts for next season, and I'm not sure there's a stand-out rookie to hire who would do better than Grosjean

Räikkönen actually admitted that he wanted a 1 year deal and will not commit to long contracts anymore.

I don't think he was that categorical about it, I thought he did not want long term contract with any team he had a offer from, which of course gives a bit of boost to the speculations that he has aspirations to replace Webber at the end of 2103.

Indeed. That same team dumped Heidfeld mid-season when he was performing as well as his teammate (if not better), then got rid of his replacement (Senna) at the end of the season.

I think they will probably keep Grosjean, but it's hard to know for sure with their recent history. If they do replace him I don't know who they would replace him with that would definitely be an improvement. Most of the best drivers already have contracts for next season, and I'm not sure there's a stand-out rookie to hire who would do better than Grosjean

That was a plan of Gerard Lopez. He even helped Senna to find sponsors.

Heidfeld was hired for the purpose of being lead driver, but he turned out to be nothing special. Just solid driver like for the most of his career.

Grosjean seem to have the raw speed, especially in qualifications but he also seems to be very prone to accidents. He has caused a lot of them by himself and when he doesn't actually cause them he still seems take part of them more than usual. He is obviously lacking something that is required when fighting wheel to wheel. That something that Raikkonen seems to have plenty of. I don't know if it is spatial awareness or fast reactions, but it is something. Now that he needs to take extra care to overcome this, he seems to start loosing his speed as well. He is not a rookie anymore; he has 24 GP's under his belt so his already long into his "second season". I don't see why he would dramatically change when/if he goes into his 27th GP next spring.

I don't understand why Lotus is even considering a multi-year deal with Grosjean and using his performance on these last couple of races as a evaluation criteria. If manages to get through two GP's without crashing, he is then ok? If they still really want to keep him, they should sign him just for one year just to see if he can overcome his crash prone driving. If he continues to crash next year and shows no improvement, with multi-year deal Lotus would look very stupid. McLaren's deal with Perez is showing these kind of signs already.

For me the choice would be clear: dump Grosjean and get more reliable but fast enough 2nd driver to back up Raikkonen and get those valuable WCC points to the team. In this form Grosjean comes very costly for the team; team loses positions in WCC and they put millions repairing the damage Grosjean is doing for the cars. I assume he hasn't been a very good Lotus PR promoter either. Most of the talks around Lotus recently have been around Grosjean punting out WDC contenders and getting a race ban. Thankfully now with Kimi's GP win they have something else to talk about.

Grosjean seem to have the raw speed, especially in qualifications but he also seems to be very prone to accidents. He has caused a lot of them by himself and when he doesn't actually cause them he still seems take part of them more than usual. He is obviously lacking something that is required when fighting wheel to wheel. That something that Raikkonen seems to have plenty of. I don't know if it is spatial awareness or fast reactions, but it is something. Now that he needs to take extra care to overcome this, he seems to start loosing his speed as well. He is not a rookie anymore; he has 24 GP's under his belt so his already long into his "second season". I don't see why he would dramatically change when/if he goes into his 27th GP next spring.

I don't understand why Lotus is even considering a multi-year deal with Grosjean and using his performance on these last couple of races as a evaluation criteria. If manages to get through two GP's without crashing, he is then ok? If they still really want to keep him, they should sign him just for one year just to see if he can overcome his crash prone driving. If he continues to crash next year and shows no improvement, with multi-year deal Lotus would look very stupid. McLaren's deal with Perez is showing these kind of signs already.

For me the choice would be clear: dump Grosjean and get more reliable but fast enough 2nd driver to back up Raikkonen and get those valuable WCC points to the team. In this form Grosjean comes very costly for the team; team loses positions in WCC and they put millions repairing the damage Grosjean is doing for the cars. I assume he hasn't been a very good Lotus PR promoter either. Most of the talks around Lotus recently have been around Grosjean punting out WDC contenders and getting a race ban. Thankfully now with Kimi's GP win they have something else to talk about.

well but ont he other hand he got Raikkonen as teammate, one of the best drivers in last 15 years I believe.

anyway his speed is gone since race ban if I can say so. or Raikkonen found his mojo in qualifications, coz atm Raikkonen looks way better in quali and in race he demolish Grosjean

For me the choice would be clear: dump Grosjean and get more reliable but fast enough 2nd driver to back up Raikkonen and get those valuable WCC points to the team.

Which would be who exactly?

In theory your plan makes sense but when I look at the available drivers for next year I'm not really seeing anyone who fits that description. Di Resta, Kobayashi, and Glock are probably the best candidates, but I'm not sure they would significantly outscore Grosjean, especially considering there would likely be an adjustment period getting used to the car/team.

I'm not a Grosjean fan by any means, and thought he fully deserved the ban. I'm just not seeing an obvious driver choice that would be better.

In theory your plan makes sense but when I look at the available drivers for next year I'm not really seeing anyone who fits that description. Di Resta, Kobayashi, and Glock are probably the best candidates, but I'm not sure they would significantly outscore Grosjean, especially considering there would likely be an adjustment period getting used to the car/team.

I'm not a Grosjean fan by any means, and thought he fully deserved the ban. I'm just not seeing an obvious driver choice that would be better.

Di Resta, he seems like he could be a reliable #2 for any top team. Never going to challenge the top driver on raw pace, but will consistently finish in the points as he has a cool head to stay out of trouble. I think he would outscore Grosjean, as Di Resta (and Hulkenberg) has half the points of Romain but in a far inferior car. In his entire F1 career he's had something like 2 retirements I think. I think he'd be the perfect compliment to Kimi, picking up points behind Raikkonen and helping Lotus' WCC chances.

I'd stick Grosjean in a Caterham for a year, if possible, as he has talent but is incredibly clumsy. Maldonado is aggressive, but it's much easier to channel aggression than it is to curb clumsiness or stop being a klutz.

In theory your plan makes sense but when I look at the available drivers for next year I'm not really seeing anyone who fits that description. Di Resta, Kobayashi, and Glock are probably the best candidates, but I'm not sure they would significantly outscore Grosjean, especially considering there would likely be an adjustment period getting used to the car/team.

I'm not a Grosjean fan by any means, and thought he fully deserved the ban. I'm just not seeing an obvious driver choice that would be better.

I would pick Kovalainen who has shown great qual speed and also pretty decent racecraft (occasionally challenging mid-pack). He is also very reliable in bringing the car to the finish line. But I don't think Lotus will pick two Finns as their driver line up.

Maby Kimi will leave Lotus after a year or two. Then what? The team will be left with medicore drivers. Like in 2011.

Romain is team's long term prospect, they will take care of him and teach him things. He has the speed, he needs to work on his racecraft.

Teach him what? He's already had 24 races in F1 to learn but where are we? How long does it take from him to learn how to race wheel to wheel without crashing? Could it be that he is lacking some skills in that area? He is also 26 years old so he's not that young either (older than Vettel for example).

If Kimi leaves, Lotus would need another top tier driver as a replacement. Grosjean is not at that level and neither are any of his speculated replacements.

It's some time already that Romain showed he could be beating Kimi in terms of speed. Recently it's more been like that Kimi pulls the difference making Q3 lap. I wonder if Spa and the crash king media storm has affected him.

agree with this.

Since Spa, he seems to have lost some of his speed whilst not gaining much in the staying out of trouble department. Worst of both worlds for him.

Teach him what? He's already had 24 races in F1 to learn but where are we? How long does it take from him to learn how to race wheel to wheel without crashing? Could it be that he is lacking some skills in that area? He is also 26 years old so he's not that young either (older than Vettel for example).

If Kimi leaves, Lotus would need another top tier driver as a replacement. Grosjean is not at that level and neither are any of his speculated replacements.

Working with tyres, the race pace, set up. Gaining expirience is the most important.

Age comparsion is silly because it's not important. Expirience in F1 car is.

Di Resta, he seems like he could be a reliable #2 for any top team. Never going to challenge the top driver on raw pace, but will consistently finish in the points as he has a cool head to stay out of trouble. I think he would outscore Grosjean, as Di Resta (and Hulkenberg) has half the points of Romain but in a far inferior car. In his entire F1 career he's had something like 2 retirements I think. I think he'd be the perfect compliment to Kimi, picking up points behind Raikkonen and helping Lotus' WCC chances.

I'd stick Grosjean in a Caterham for a year, if possible, as he has talent but is incredibly clumsy. Maldonado is aggressive, but it's much easier to channel aggression than it is to curb clumsiness or stop being a klutz.

Kimi and Grosjean have certainly kept Lotus in the news through out the year, for one reason or the other. I am not sure Di Resta and Kimi would deliver the same PR. I think Lotus enjoys the exposure (even if it is sometimes not for the right reasons relating to Grosjean), and probably so do their sponsors.

Since Spa, he seems to have lost some of his speed whilst not gaining much in the staying out of trouble department. Worst of both worlds for him.

I also agree that this storm has affected his pace, and to an extent caused his crash with Webber in Japan. The lack of distinction between cause and getting caught up have blown it out of proportion. It's got into his fragile rookie head which is a shame.

He needs the confidence of his team instilled into him via a new contract and he will be back I suspect.

Kimi and Grosjean have certainly kept Lotus in the news through out the year, for one reason or the other. I am not sure Di Resta and Kimi would deliver the same PR. I think Lotus enjoys the exposure (even if it is sometimes not for the right reasons relating to Grosjean), and probably so do their sponsors.

I think expectations were bit too high on him as he did very well in GP2, had driven Pirelli's before, Team principal is his manager and his team mate coming back after 2 years (People were underestimating Kimi due to 2008 and MS own's failure on come back). If we take away all those he has performed decent enough. But one thing he should learn to avoid accidents, especially racing incidents like Abu dhabi. He should concentrate and have patience to finish the races. Once he learns that art, he could be the force to reckon with combining with his qualifying pace. He has likeable personality and good guy. He should be given another chance.

I think Grosjean has done enough this season to demonstrate his potential, the fact he's been erratic is probably not something that will ever completely go away, but it doesn't mean he won't have a decent F1 career.

It reminds me a bit of Felipe Massa's early career, Sauber wasn't as good as Lotus is this year, but at the time you would watch Massa drive and it would be very difficult to imagine that driver ever being a WDC threat despite having the odd eye-opening performance.